Shark Fishing

Living so close to water means many of us have gone fishing, but have you ever been of shark fishing? It is something offered right here in our area.

Don't worry; shark fishing off Wrightsville Beach isn’t exactly like a scene from Jaws. In fact, it is not scary at all.

Captain Jot Owens offers shark-fishing charters for people of all ages. Captain Jot said, "It's a lot of fun for kids. Sharks will come right up to the boat sometimes."

We begin our shark fishing a mile and a half off Wrightsville Beach. Now it's time to find out just what kind of sharks are lurking beneath our open waters. We cast out four lines using live bait. Since this isn't your everyday fishing excursion, we use a strong 80-pound Cajun red line to make sure the shark can't break the line.

Then we sit and wait. Not to make you nervous, but Captain Jot says many sharks make Wrightsville Beach their home, because the inlet provides them with plenty of baitfish to eat. The first couple sharks we catch are babies, weighing about a pound.

After a couple of hours of fishing we’ve only caught three baby sharks but still have hope that we’ll catch a bigger one. Minutes later, the moment we have been waiting for! Catching the shark is the easy part, reeling him in is a different story.

Some sharks are not light. After bringing in just one shark, my arm aches. Captain Jot says on most trips he'll catch sharks weighing between 10 and 200 pounds. The first shark we caught was a 50-pound Sandbar shark.

Then we catch three more. Two are hooked at one time. After waiting two hours to catch a larger shark, in the span of five minutes we’ve caught four sharks ranging from 30 to 50 pounds!

Captain Jot releases every shark that he and his passengers catch on the fishing trips.

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